why everybody is in love with linger's bags

In times when the fashion world is being ruled by logomania, and every fashionista holds in her closet at least 10 items adorned with luxury brand’s logos, a small Asian-Scandinavian boutique revolutionises the field, and instills hope in anyone who believes the label is less important than the item itself.

‘Linger’ started about five years ago as a startup for leather goods, watches and jewellery, by two partners from Hong Kong and Norway. Sure enough they were surprised to see tens of thousands of women filling their waiting lists craving for their bags.

The two partners Jennifer Chong and Roman Khan, got tired of luxury brands that offer expansive items, and decided to open their own studio in order to design minimalist-looking leather items and watches, made in the same luxury-branded factories, but at a much lower cost and in an ecological spirit. The costs are discounted by direct-to-consumer sales, with no brokerage agents, such as huge stores or marketing budgets. Chong and Khan are aiming to pass the savings on to their customers, with 245-825$ price range, for meticulous designs of the highest quality Italian leather.

They sold their first designed laptop bag to a kind of kickstarter project, trying to see if there’s any interest in their product. Within 40 days, they raised 150,000$ in advance orders.

For the past three years, they have been producing men's and women's bags and unisex watches. Doctor's bag (345$), for example, amassed a waiting list of 3,000 women even before it went on sale, and upon launch everything was sold out. At the end of last July, the Doctor's bag returned with a waiting list of 50,000 people - an increase of 1,600 percent since it was first launched. Their tulip bag also turned out to be an amazing success with a waiting list of 120,000 people and The limited edition pink and brown tinted model (825$) has no deadline for receipt yet.

jhj